Noorullah Online

It was expected that other Islamic insurance products would be made available to cater for a variety of insurance needs amongst the Muslim community, such as term assurance, mortgage protection or old age annuities, but the process of introducing new Takaful products such as to sell annuities has been very slow and, to some extent, non-existent. In order to be successful and profitable, it is imperative for a Takaful company to offer a wide range of products and Takaful should not remain to be seen as a very narrowly based product operation. The Muslim communities in Western Europe have very high expectations from Islamic institutions in offering a complete Islamic system for their daily financial and insurance needs.

However, until recently, only a part of this Islamic financial system was offered. Just imagine how difficult it would be to explain to a prospective policyholder that he should take out a Takaful savings plan for savings purposes but should rely upon the Western insurance industry for other insurance needs. It is therefore imperative to design and market Islamic products, which can meet wider insurance needs of the Muslim community. This suggests that insurance products for which there will be a higher demand in future are likely to be old age pension, annuity, medical care and long term care products.